MAINS DAILY QUESTIONS & MODEL ANSWERS
Q1. The right to marriage is a fundamental human right that is upheld by the Indian constitution but not by the country’s general legal system or the approval of the community. Do you concur? In light of numerous personal laws, explain.
GS II – Government Policies and Interventions
- The freedom to marry is protected by the constitution and by human rights. In terms of the right to begin a family, it is specified in the Human Rights Charter. It is available under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution as the right to life and personal liberty.
In support of the constitution:
- The Supreme Court of India ruled in the Right to Privacy Case of 2017 that maintaining personal intimacies, the sanctity of family life, marriage, procreation (reproduction), the home, and sexual orientation all fall under the definition of privacy. Thus, the right to personal privacy extends beyond marriage to include forbidden relationships like same-sex unions.
Indian customary law:
- However, India’s standard laws don’t exhibit the same passion.
Impedes interfaith union:
- Prohibition clauses in personal laws: For instance, the Hindu Marriage Act forbids marriages between even distant cousins, called sapindas.
- The Special Marriage Act, which was designed to make it easier for interfaith couples to wed, has provisions that actually forbid it. The’marriage officer’ of the district in which one of the parties has resided for at least 30 days should receive notice from the parties to an intended marriage.
- The announcement must be recorded in a “Marriage Notice Book” that is available for public sight. The counterpart in the district where the party maintains a permanent residence must receive a copy of it.
- Additionally, it gives everyone the opportunity to express their opposition to marriage on the grounds that it violates one of the requirements for a legal union.
- Prohibits homosexual marriage: There is no law that permits intra-sex unions. The Special Marriage Act (SMA) and the Foreign Marriage Act (FMA) have been the subject of two separate petitions by same-sex couples asking the Delhi High Court to rule that all couples, regardless of gender identity and sexual orientation, should be subject to the SMA and FMA.
Not supported by societal sanctions: Society uses a variety of tools to impose its standards on people:
- Honour killings and other forms of violence are committed to stop couples from voluntarily getting together.
- Social exclusion: When an inter-caste, inter-religious, or intra-sex couple resides in a community, they are frequently socially excluded by the community, which further instills dread in the community.
- Religious Sanctions: It is frequently thought of as a religious obligation to stop such illegal partnerships.
- Patriarchal Mindset: It is crucial in India because people deny girls the freedom to select their life spouse.
Conclusion:
- Although there are many reasons to believe that the right to marriage is still not protected by the law, including societal fear, recent judicial precedents have opened the door for its implementation. Cases like the Right to Privacy case and the LGBTQ Case (Naz foundation case) have expanded the right to life. Additionally, some segments of society have called for a uniform civil code (Article 44), which may eventually result in a number of reforms.
Q2. What advantages would the establishment of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in India bring to the country’s scientific and technology sector?
GS III – Science and Technology related issues
- The government of India has approved the establishment of LIGO-India in Maharashtra, which will be the third of its kind and built to the exact specifications of the twin LIGO observatories in Louisiana and Washington. LIGO.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory’s (LIGO) key characteristics are:
- The General Theory of Relativity, which encompasses the most recent knowledge of how gravitation operates, is the foundation of the LIGO project.
- Each arm of the enormous L-shaped LIGO is 4 km long, and the whole thing is formed like a huge ‘L’.
- A detector determines if two laser pulses are fired simultaneously through each arm, bounce off a mirror at the end, and then return to the vertex.
- The pulses are slightly out of phase when a gravitational wave travels through the detector, and this and other signals are used by researchers to find, record, and analyse gravitational waves.
- Until far, at least 10 events creating gravitational waves have been identified, with the first detection of gravitational waves made in 2015 by two American LIGOs.
- A third observatory is necessary to more accurately triangulate the location of a source in the sky even though two LIGOs can investigate gravitational waves.
Benefits of LIGO’s establishment for India’s research and technology sector:
- Possibility of making India a significant hub for gravitational physics research: The creation of LIGO will help train Indian scientists, and the administration of precise technologies and sophisticated control systems will help India build its reputation as a country that can successfully oversee an experimental Big Science project.
- Modern technology creation: The LIGO-India Project will support Indian business in creating the civil and hoover infrastructure necessary to install the LIGO-India Detector.
- The LIGO project will also improve Indian industry’s ability to produce high-power lasers, precise optics, and artificial intelligence-based control systems.
- The demand for more sensitive astronomical instruments drove the technological development of quantum-enhanced sensing, which will eventually give rise to quantum engineering, of which the LIGO detectors are the most renowned examples.
- Research in the areas of quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum materials, and quantum sensing, a subject in which India intends to be a leader, can be accelerated by the initiative.
- Can aid in learning more about gravitational waves: The LIGO-India Project’s establishment will increase the likelihood of gravitational wave detection by 20 times due to the location of the sky from India.
- It can reshape how Indian society interacts with science by creating a facility that benefits the local area, addressing legitimate issues with resource access and conducting public outreach on par with the global LIGO Scientific Collaboration.
- By laying the groundwork for the LIGO India Detector during the G20 year, India will send the right message to the world that it intends to take the lead in emerging deep technologies. An innovative project will also encourage and inspire young scientists and students to conduct research on emerging technologies.
